MD Helen Tonge swaps her crime scripts for her swim cap to take on her biggest challenge yet!

We all love a juicy crime story, especially TV producers! Now Managing Director Helen Tonge is attempting to do what some of America’s most dangerous criminals couldn’t – Escape from Alcatraz!

It’s thought only a handful of crooks ever escaped from The Rock, with shark infested waters and dangerous currents proving an almost inescapable barrier, should lags scale the prison walls. But Helen’s escape bid doesn’t involve one swim in these treacherous waters, but three crossings! She’ll be attempting this choppy challenge for a very worthy cause – an incredible children’s charity called Wood Street Mission

This is a local Manchester charity in the North West of England that help children living in poverty with essential things for everyday life. From kitting them out with school uniforms to helping babies with their basic needs.

So she’ll be swapping scripts for swim hats and heading off on the 10th April this year. Incredibly she has already hit her target for sponsorship but she’s keen to raise as much as she can for this very worthy cause.

On April 13th I will be swimming three escape routes from Alcatraz in San Francisco.

It probably does sound a bit bonkers yes, but I visited San Fran nearly a decade ago and was fascinated with the story of how prisoners had tried to escape from the rock. Some failed and were captured. Others shot…and some they believe, made it to freedom, swimming to one of the places I will be hopefully swimming to!

Can it be done? I hope so! my first swim on the morning of Sat 13th is to St Francis, just 2 miles away. My second will be to the foot of the Golden Gate bridge – Horseshoe Bay…that’s 3 miles, and the third is to Angel Island. That’s 2.4 miles.

Of course I wanted to set myself a challenge, but my point is to raise money for an incredible children’s charity, Wood Street Mission.

And this year, Wood Street Mission will be 150 years old!

I’d love for us all to come together and collectively raise enough money for them to provide 25 children with the basics they need for school. Each pack will give them:

– full school uniform

– school bag

– lunch box

– stationery

– sports kit

And if I manage to navigate the choppy waters of the bay and dodge the sharks, I might set a record in the process to! Just checking on that one 😊

A huge thank you in advance for any kind donation you manage to give. The deeper you dig, the faster I’ll swim, I promise 😉